William D. Coplin of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and Marcelle Haddix of the School of Education have received 2017 Judith Greenberg Seinfeld Scholar awards in recognition of their outstanding work as scholars and teachers. Endowed by alumna and University Trustee Judith Greenberg Seinfeld ’56, the awards recognize faculty members who have shown a passion for excellence and exceptional creativity and originality in an academic or artistic field or endeavor. The awards are intended to recognize “those who have made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world, who have added to human values and to ending human abuse anywhere in the world.”

William Coplin

Coplin has been a professor of public affairs and director of the public affairs program at the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences since 1976. Throughout his career at Syracuse, he has advocated for reforms in high school and college education to address more fully the needs of students who see education as a path to better employment opportunities. He has consulted with more than 40 high schools throughout New York State on curriculum, and he designed and implemented curriculum to develop career and citizenship skills among college and high school students. Since the publication of his book “Ten Things Employers Want You to Learn in College,” he has written extensively on the subject of educational reform for national media as well as for the National Parent Teacher Association, the National Association of School Boards and for many other outlets.

Coplin is a passionate advocate for building public service into the college curriculum, and his course, Public Affairs 101: Introduction to the Analysis of Public Policy, helped shape the guidelines for the New York state Regents course Participation in Government, required of all 12th graders. His policy studies major, which he developed in 1978, requires at least six credit hours of coursework relating to community projects, and estimates show that students in that program have provided more than $100,000 in research services and more than $60,000 in direct services each year to clients of nonprofit agencies.

Coplin has published more than 110 books and articles in the fields of international relations, public policy, political risk analysis, social science education, citizenship and “doing good.” Syracuse University recognized him with a Chancellor’s Citation for Distinguished service in 1993 and two years later appointed him one of the three inaugural Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professors for Teaching Excellence.

A Dean’s Associate Professor and chair of the reading and language arts center in the School of Education, Haddix received the Seinfeld Scholar Award in recognition of both her past accomplishments and her promising potential for greater achievements ahead.

Marcelle Haddix

Haddix joined the School of Education faculty in 2008, and since that time has developed a distinctive focus on and expertise in youth literacies, particularly in the urban context, and the preparation of teachers for youth in urban schools. In 2009, she created the Writing Our Lives project to provide Syracuse area youth with creative opportunities to write, create, produce and share their stories. The program takes multiple formats, including after-school writing programs, summer writing institutes, book clubs, digital composing programs, theatrical performances and an annual youth writing conference.

In conjunction with the Community Folk Arts Center in Syracuse, she also created the program Dark Girls: Celebration of Black Girlhood in 2013 to support literacy, identity, self-esteem and social development of adolescent girls of color.

Haddix also has pursued research and activities designed to better prepare future teachers of urban youth. She has engaged undergraduate and graduate students in both the Writing Our Lives and Dark Girls projects, and facilitated development of TEACHSyracuse programs at three local high schools to help encourage high school students to explore the field of teaching. Haddix has received several national early-career awards and recognitions, and in 2011, she earned a Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Teaching Recognition Award from Syracuse University.

Haddix is a core faculty member in the Renée Crown University Honors Program, an affiliated faculty member in women’s and gender studies, a member of the Democratizing Knowledge core team and a courtesy faculty appointee in the cultural foundations of education program. She authored the book “Cultivating Racial and Linguistic Diversity in Literacy Teacher Education: Teachers Like Me” and currently serves as vice president of the Literacy Research Association.

The Judith Greenberg Seinfeld Scholar Award is among many lasting gifts Seinfeld has created for Syracuse University over the years. Faculty recipients are nominated by academic deans, and awardees receive a restriction-free grant of $10,000 to encourage them in their continued outstanding performance.

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